This is true, and almost a good reason. But I'd strongly recommend against commuting over the mountain if you can help it. It's particularly prone to fog which can make that journey take quite a bit longer.

This is true, and almost a good reason. But I'd strongly recommend against commuting over the mountain if you can help it. It's particularly prone to fog which can make that journey take quite a bit longer.

I am curious about the mountain. Looking at the map I am guessing the mountain is around the national park, which is west of the law school? So as long as I am east of the national park I would not have to commute over the mountain? Say for instance Crozet (if you have ever heard of it) would be good? I mean in the sense I would not be commuting over the mountain.

Gooner91 wrote:I am curious about the mountain. Looking at the map I am guessing the mountain is around the national park, which is west of the law school? So as long as I am east of the national park I would not have to commute over the mountain? Say for instance Crozet (if you have ever heard of it) would be good? I mean in the sense I would not be commuting over the mountain.

Okay, Crozet is a really nice small town (much smaller than Charlottesville), particularly now that it has a decent grocery store. Probably most of the residents who live there commute into Charlottesville. And you don't have to cross the mountain, so it is much better than Waynesboro. You are also fifteen minutes closer to the national park, which is now only 8 miles away from your doorstep.

As you will see on Google Maps, there's a good interstate connection, and the 250 bypass links into the law school on the commute in. The commute back out is slightly worse because there's no direct connection to the bypass in that direction.

I only know one student who lives in that direction. Unsurprisingly, they have a family - that's probably the best reason to live further out, so you can enjoy more space. Equally, with a bit of work it is possible to rent a 3 bedroom townhouse in Charlottesville proper for $1,100/month or so, and I don't imagine Crozet is that much cheaper.

albanach wrote:Okay, Crozet is a really nice small town (much smaller than Charlottesville), particularly now that it has a decent grocery store. Probably most of the residents who live there commute into Charlottesville. And you don't have to cross the mountain, so it is much better than Waynesboro. You are also fifteen minutes closer to the national park, which is now only 8 miles away from your doorstep.

As you will see on Google Maps, there's a good interstate connection, and the 250 bypass links into the law school on the commute in. The commute back out is slightly worse because there's no direct connection to the bypass in that direction.

I only know one student who lives in that direction. Unsurprisingly, they have a family - that's probably the best reason to live further out, so you can enjoy more space. Equally, with a bit of work it is possible to rent a 3 bedroom townhouse in Charlottesville proper for $1,100/month or so, and I don't imagine Crozet is that much cheaper.

tons of available parking, doesn't really change as a 1L. if you live too close you can't get the permit that's right by the law school (a, idk, 90 second walk to the door) but you can still park in the lot behind it by the softball fields. too close for the close lot = living ivy/arlington boulevard (jeff and pavilion inclusive). but that second lot is, idk, a 4 minute walk.

cost for those two passes is different, there's officially a upperclass only lottery for the close lot at first but then every 1L that wants one gets a chance to request one. never heard of anyone not getting the close pass eventually that requests it. you can find a lot of cost etc details on the university's parking page; the close lot is d3 i think and the other lot is covered by the standard blue pass.

also free parking on at least one side of arlington all day if you get there first, some people do that every morning. but you gotta get there real early.

I am an incoming 1L this fall, and am currently looking for apartments online -- 1BRs that allows a cat. I'm super wary of signing a lease without seeing the place, particularly since that has royally screwed me over in the past, so I am posting here hoping to hear from someone who either currently lives, or has lived, at the Jack Jouett apartments, managed by University Apartments. (If some of these seem a bit nit-picky, it's because of prior experiences... )

My main questions are as follows:- Average heat/electric costs in the winter?- General noise level?- Bus routes nearby? (A 1 mile walk to school doesn't sound too fun in the midst of winter.)- Water pressure in the shower? - Cleanliness upon moving in?- Maintenance?- General thoughts.

spent a lot of time in the jouett apartments. will hit stuff i know off top of my head and pm you the more logistical details when my friend hits me back up. i'll preface this by saying the apts come highly recommended by a friend.

- bus routes are nearby, i get confused by them cause they've changed since i was in the area, but basically there's a stop on rugby road right up a hill from your back door and another stop on the other side of the lambeth residences, which are down a hill past lambeth field out your front door. the rugby route is closer to you, maybe 2 mins walk, and should connect straight to main grounds, so like the chapel etc. the lambeth stop is maybe a 5 min walk and should take you to the law school via barracks.

- maintenance was very responsive, i broke some things there and it was no problem! AC broke once (not my fault) and they fixed it way faster than my preferred cville real estate company did when my AC broke the same season. a doorknob broke over the weekend once (totally my fault) and they fixed it within 24 hours.

- noise. soo...i tend to tell prospective 1Ls to stay away from the rugby road area if they're noise sensitive. i give that advice, but it's conservative. this area will be noisier than ivy for sure, but it's predictable in that it'll be thursday nights, friday nights, really nice saturday days (do you like country music?). frats rush in january; expect noise then (about half of their events are at their houses, two of which are a retaining wall and two backyards away from your apartment if your apt backs up to the SE wall of JJ). but it's one of those things i think you just get used to -- maybe you study at the library if it's too nice out for peace and quiet or you say fuck it and go out with your friends if your neighbors are going to be too loud to go to bed early.

noise retention from unit to unit is about normal--there were times where it sounded like the above neighbors were playing some ridiculous bowling game with rolling ottomans. well, they were doing exactly that. douchebag engineering students. so i guess it's as effective as you can hope for in a building that old.

- cleanliness moving in: yeah, about average for the area. not terrible not awesome.

- water pressure about average, idk i don't remember it being weird

- general thoughts: oldish apartments "with a lot of character" whatever the shit that means (jk i watch hgtv all the time, hardwood floors fireplaces in most units etc. they are a solid blank slate to build on if you're into that)

- location bonuses: unlike most other law students, you can easily walk to the corner and to main grounds. it's about a 10 min walk to the UG libraries or the corner. this helps counter the whole noise thing because if it's too loud, you don't have to trek to the law lib to get some work done. go throw a blanket out on the lawn and doze off while reading chemerinsky or something

You can come in well under that if you want to. One year I lived in a 2bedroom in Ivy, in the smaller bedroom. $450/month. With utilities, about $550 a month. Giving yourself $100/week for food/drink only takes you to like $12k a year. If you buy in bulk and cook often and cheaply, you can save a lot. Also, lots of free food events at the school at lunch, play around with those.

rachellen wrote:I am an incoming 1L this fall, and am currently looking for apartments online -- 1BRs that allows a cat. I'm super wary of signing a lease without seeing the place, particularly since that has royally screwed me over in the past, so I am posting here hoping to hear from someone who either currently lives, or has lived, at the Jack Jouett apartments, managed by University Apartments. (If some of these seem a bit nit-picky, it's because of prior experiences... )

My main questions are as follows:- Average heat/electric costs in the winter?- General noise level?- Bus routes nearby? (A 1 mile walk to school doesn't sound too fun in the midst of winter.)- Water pressure in the shower? - Cleanliness upon moving in?- Maintenance?- General thoughts.

Thanks so much for anyone who can answer some of these questions!

I have similar questions as the poster above, but about the Ashtree Apartments managed by MSC. I've seen them in person and am aware of the transportation options, but I'm wondering if anyone can comment on things like noise level, general amenities, management, etc. Any other general information would also be great! (I'm specifically looking at a middle level unit so there would be upstairs and downstairs neighbors...)

You can come in well under that if you want to. One year I lived in a 2bedroom in Ivy, in the smaller bedroom. $450/month. With utilities, about $550 a month. Giving yourself $100/week for food/drink only takes you to like $12k a year. If you buy in bulk and cook often and cheaply, you can save a lot. Also, lots of free food events at the school at lunch, play around with those.

Good stuff. Sounds like 14k would be a reasonable estimate as a kind of middle ground number.

I spend less than $1K a month for everything that does not include tuition. Seriously whatever you do do not take out the full boat in loans, you don't need it and 3Ls ALWAYS regret it. Once you get over like the first month where everyone is trying to impress everyone people start living like poor college students again, as they should

kingjones59 wrote:I spend less than $1K a month for everything that does not include tuition. Seriously whatever you do do not take out the full boat in loans, you don't need it and 3Ls ALWAYS regret it. Once you get over like the first month where everyone is trying to impress everyone people start living like poor college students again, as they should

kingjones59 wrote:I spend less than $1K a month for everything that does not include tuition. Seriously whatever you do do not take out the full boat in loans, you don't need it and 3Ls ALWAYS regret it. Once you get over like the first month where everyone is trying to impress everyone people start living like poor college students again, as they should

Are you suggesting that 10k per the school year would be adequate?

I think this is not a question that anyone should answer for you. Using this forum you can probably estimate your rent and your food expenses. You know how much you eat out, how much you drive, how much your insurance costs, etc. All that stuff factors into your budget, which you should make prior to deciding how much you want in loans. The expenses of law school are generally very predictable. As a 1L, its common for people to go out (and often drink) with people a few nights a week and spend most of your other time studying or watching Netflix. Figure a drink at the bar is $5 and someone else on here can tell you what a cab to Ivy (or wherever you plan to live) costs.

If you plan to live really frugally, have roommates, avoid eating out, are a hot chick who is likely to have her drinks bought for her at the bar, then your budget is likely to look radically different from others. Personally 10,000 would not be anywhere near enough for me for 10 months. But, there are certainly many people at the law school who do it.

kingjones59 wrote:I spend less than $1K a month for everything that does not include tuition. Seriously whatever you do do not take out the full boat in loans, you don't need it and 3Ls ALWAYS regret it. Once you get over like the first month where everyone is trying to impress everyone people start living like poor college students again, as they should

Are you suggesting that 10k per the school year would be adequate?

I think this is not a question that anyone should answer for you. Using this forum you can probably estimate your rent and your food expenses. You know how much you eat out, how much you drive, how much your insurance costs, etc. All that stuff factors into your budget, which you should make prior to deciding how much you want in loans. The expenses of law school are generally very predictable. As a 1L, its common for people to go out (and often drink) with people a few nights a week and spend most of your other time studying or watching Netflix. Figure a drink at the bar is $5 and someone else on here can tell you what a cab to Ivy (or wherever you plan to live) costs.

If you plan to live really frugally, have roommates, avoid eating out, are a hot chick who is likely to have her drinks bought for her at the bar, then your budget is likely to look radically different from others. Personally 10,000 would not be anywhere near enough for me for 10 months. But, there are certainly many people at the law school who do it.

Valid point. I think as it stands, from what's been said in the thread, that calculating room and board with the number UVA has posted (roughly 16k) would be a little of an overestimate, which is of course good when estimating these things. It's counterintuitive when UVA has 16k as room and board, and certain Boston schools have something along the lines of 18k.

If you qualified for acceptance to both journals you applied to (outside of VLR) then does that mean some people get invited to both secondary journals? As in, if you only got one invite, does that mean you did not qualify for the 2nd journal? And then the underlying question being of course that if you did not qualify for one of the second journals then does that speak to your chances of writing on to VLR? I know most secondary journals look at only the editing part so it may not correlate directly with VLR score, but I assume you have to kill both the editing and writing for VLR.

If you qualified for acceptance to both journals you applied to (outside of VLR) then does that mean some people get invited to both secondary journals? As in, if you only got one invite, does that mean you did not qualify for the 2nd journal? And then the underlying question being of course that if you did not qualify for one of the second journals then does that speak to your chances of writing on to VLR? I know most secondary journals look at only the editing part so it may not correlate directly with VLR score, but I assume you have to kill both the editing and writing for VLR.

Yes, people do get invited to both journals they applied to if they qualified for both.

My understanding is that VLR is heavy on the writing and secondary journals are heavy on the editing. Whether that means that you can miss out on secondaries and write onto VLR by crushing the writing portion, I'm not sure, but I think it's at least possible.

Heat wrote:Personally 10,000 would not be anywhere near enough for me for 10 months.

I just want to add that Mr. Heat is a relatively frugal individual. Like, I have to twist his arm every time I want to have dinner at a restaurant fancier than Buffalo Wild Wings. You should know that if $1k a month is not enough for him, it's probably not enough for you, either. Even if you have roommates, $1k a month is hard. It's not just about eating out and buying drinks. Incidental expenses come up throughout the year. If you own a car (and it ever needs repairs), if you pay your own phone bill, if you buy your own clothes (especially interview clothes), if you have a pet, $1k a month is just not going to cut it.

But my understanding is that you can take less than the maximum amount of loans and then apply for more if you find that you're strapped for cash. So maybe try that!